Bujagali Falls (also spelled Budhagali) was a waterfall near Jinja in Uganda where the Nile
River comes out
of Lake Victoria, sometimes considered the source of the Nile. Starting
November 2011, the falls were submerged by the new Bujagali Dam.
Dam
An acute electricity crisis impacted the
livelihoods of millions of Ugandans and threatened the country’s development.
Hospitals, schools, businesses, and residences suffered daily power shortages,
which have stunted Uganda’s economic growth by an estimated one percent of the
country’s gross domestic product. The Bujagali project is a 200MW hydropower facility on the Victoria Nile in
Uganda that will help address the country’s energy crisis. The project supports
Uganda’s broader development strategy, which focuses in large part on improving
the investment climate to promote growth and reduce poverty.
Others say the costly dam’s power will not meet the
needs of the vast majority of the country’s population, will drown a sacred
waterfall, and could do further harm to Lake Victoria, the world’s largest
tropical lake. Approximately 6,800 people will be directly affected by the
creation of the dam.
The Bujagali 'Spirit'
The falls are said by local residents to
be the site of a spirit, called the "Spirit of Bujabald," who
protects the community by performing rituals at the falls. The spirit is
embodied in a man, Jaja Bujabald, who lives next to the falls; he is the
thirty-ninth person to be the spirit.
